The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight on the use of robots in a range of industrial test and inspection applications.
Following a brief introduction, this discusses robotic test and inspection products and practices in the following applications: pipelines, storage tanks, bridges, marine uses, green energy generation and aerospace. Finally, concluding comments are drawn.
This shows that robotic test and inspection practices are being used in a wide range of applications across a diversity of industries. This reflects the many operational and economic benefits arising from their use which include the ability to automate certain laborious manual methods; operation in hazardous locations; uses in inaccessible environments such as within pipelines; the ability to deploy several different techniques simultaneously and thus detect multiple potential defects; reduced workforce costs; and, very often, more rapid testing and greater data acquisition rates than are possible with human operators.
This illustrates the increasingly important role played by robotic technologies in industrial test and inspection practices.
